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The Closest New Stars To Earth Are In A Place You've Never Looked (Synopsis)

By esiegel on January 18, 2016.

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life." -Albert Camus

If you ask the average person where you can find new stars in our galaxy, they might (correctly) identify the Orion Nebula, a hotbed of star formation where thousands of new stars are presently being born. But at ~1,500 light years away, it's not the closest place where new stars are forming, not by a long shot.

Image credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2; Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin. Image credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2; Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin.

Instead, the southern hemisphere holds a number of smaller "dark nebulae," which are actually gas clouds. Many of them are in the process of forming brilliant new stars, including Lupus 3, which is giving birth to stars ranging from much less than the mass of our Sun all the way up to many times it mass and brightness.

Image credit: ESO/F. Comeron. Image credit: ESO/F. Comeron.

Come take a fantastic look inside on today's Mostly Mute Monday!

Tags
Astronomy
Stars

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